


Lean on Me

by wabbitseason



Category: Remember WENN
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-07-01
Updated: 2002-07-01
Packaged: 2019-01-03 22:12:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12155838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wabbitseason/pseuds/wabbitseason
Summary: Hilary and Mackie's friendship changes when her marriage to Jeffrey crumbles.





	Lean on Me

Mackie Bloom entered O'Malley's bar. After his day at WENN, he felt he needed a serious drink, something to cleanse the palette of the Pavla Nemkova incident. He hoped that that Czechoslovakian actress would get her comeuppance.

He was about to order his beer, when he noticed a familiar face sitting in a booth in the far corner. Hilary Booth sat alone with a large bottle of Scotch, pouring herself another glass, her auburn hair disheveled. Mackie was surprised. Hilary usually didn't drink, even a sip of wine at parties.

Hilary deserved better. Hilary Booth might be the most demanding and difficult actress Mackie had worked with in his career, but she was still his friend.

Mackie approached his co-star, concern etched across his face. "Hilary? Are you okay?"

Hilary barely looked up from her Scotch. Mackie could also see she had been crying for a long time. The bottle was already half empty. "Go away, I don't need anyone."

"What are you doing here?" Mackie asked gently, sitting down next to Hilary in the booth.

"Doing what I always do when the chips are down," Hilary said sadly. She said wistfully. "I haven't drunk this much since I thought Jeff was dead in London. Now I wish that he really was."

"Hilary, you don't mean that, do you?" Mackie asked. "Right now you are filled with feelings of outrage... and I willing admit that I'm sorely tempted. But you still love him."

"Of course I do," Hilary admitted, "That's why his betrayal hurt... so much." She put down her glass suddenly, sloshing Scotch all over the table. Tears welled up, causing Hilary to break down again. "He used to keep me in control. I just don't how to make it without him anymore, Mackie..."

"Hey," Mackie said, wrapping an arm around Hilary, "that's what you have your friends for. We're here to help." He listened to her sob quietly,letting her rest her head against his shoulder. "There, there, Hil, have a good cry. But don't lose yourself in the bottle. You can replace Jeff, but no one can replace Hilary Booth."

Hilary laughed, wiping away her tears. "What would I do without you, Mackie?"

"Oh, you'd probably find someone," Mackie smiled.

"They could read your lines," Hilary said, "they couldn't be you."

Mackie gave her an affectionate hug. "C'mon, I'll drive you home."

###

"You've barely touched your food," Hilary said over dinner in the Buttery. "What's wrong?" Following Jeff's betrayal, Hilary had leaned on Mackie for support, occasionally meeting after work.

"I've got some swell news today," Mackie started, "but I don't know how to break it to everyone at WENN... especially you." Hilary frowned. "I've been offered a chance in a lifetime. A director called me about casting me in a regional tour of Hamlet."

"Very exciting, as Scott would say," Hilary said brightly, strangely refraining from her usual smart remarks about her theater background, "what role would you play? The ghost?"

Mackie laughed. "Hardly. If they get Barrymore to play the lead, I'd be a little young to play his father." He added. "I'm Polonius."

"That is a great part," Hilary said proudly. "You'll make a perfect Polonius."

"I know," Mackie nodded. "And you knew that too when you suggested it."

"I did nothing of the kind, Mackie," Hilary protested, then amended, "I just... planted an idea into his head." She sighed. "How did you know?"

"The production reeks of your old theater connections," Mackie said. "From the director to the proposed leading man..."

"Everyone wants John Barrymore to reprise his Hamlet," Hilary said. "He even played it on the radio for NBC." She sighed. "He isn't what he was, alas. His vices are far more numerous than his virtue."

"Why did you do it, Hilary?" Mackie asked. "Trying to get rid of me?"

Hilary shook her head, "Far from it, I was trying to... help." She tried to explain. "After everything you've done for me lately, I thought I could repay you by giving you a chance to be Mackie, the actor, not just Mackie, the man of a thousand voices." She added, looking down at her soup. "Even if it means you'll have to be away from WENN for awhile."

"And you," Mackie said. Hilary glanced up. "You don't think I'd forget that easily, do you?" He added. "You're a real prize, Hil, a real keeper." Hilary blushed a little self-consciously. "Look, I don't have a lot of time before I leave on this tour, and I know it's not the best of timing," Mackie said, "but would you be interested in... seeing a movie with me or something?"

"Why, Mr. Bloom, I thought you'd never ask." Hilary smiled.

###

"Hilary, I deserve an explanation," Jeffrey Singer said, cornering Hilary after she had dropped the bombshell announcing she was already married.

"For what?" Hilary asked.

Jeffrey replied. "You're married to someone else."

"That didn't seem to stop you from taking up with that Czech tart as soon as you left Pittsburgh," Hilary snapped.

"I explained that," Jeffrey said.

"Inadequately, I might add," Taking a deep breath, Hilary turned towards Jeffrey. "What was I supposed to do, Jeffrey? I thought you had left me. I thought it was over."

"You could have trusted me," Jeffrey said. "Trusted us." He asked. "There's just one thing I need to know? Who is he?"

"Who is who?" Hilary asked.

"The other man," Jeff said. "Is it Scott? Or Victor? Is it that Ballinger person?"

Hilary shook her head. "It's not who you'd expect... not who I'd expect either."

Before she could explain, Mackie Bloom came through the Green Room doors, his smile brightening. "Hey, Hilary, are you ready for lunch? I heard the special at the Buttery is..." Then he saw Jeff. "Oh, hi Jeff. Ah, change in plans."

"No, I'm ready, Mackie," Hilary said, grabbing her jacket. "I've said all I need to my... former husband."

"Hilary!" Jeff said. He turned towards Mackie who was leaving behind her. "Mackie, please, talk some sense into her."

Mackie paused at the door. "Jeff, I try not to get involved in other people's marriage problems."

"A fine friend you are," Jeff grumbled.

"A better friend to Hilary," Mackie replied enigmatically. Sighing he said. "Hilary, I'll catch up with in a little bit."

"Don't be too long," Hilary smiled. She glared at Jeffrey for one last moment, then turned on her heel and left the Green Room.

Mackie turned to face Jeffrey. "I didn't want it to happen this way, Jeff, you have to know that, but you weren't here. You should have been."

"I tried to explain," Jeff said.

"I know that now," Mackie said, "but I'm not sure Hilary will ever understand." He explained. "When Pavla showed up with her news, Hilary didn't know what to think, except the worst. She fell apart. She returned to old habits."

Jeff realized without any further explanation, "She started drinking again, didn't she?" Mackie nodded. "Oh, Hilary..." He sighed, sitting heavily at the couch. "She was a heavy drinker when we were first met on Razzle Dazzle. She had picked up the taste during her Broadway days, partying with the elite. When we moved to Pittsburgh to work at WENN, she decided to start a clean slate."

"She hadn't touched the stuff since she thought you were dead in London," Mackie said. "Then after Pavla left, I found her blitzed from too much Scotch at O'Malley's." He held out his hands. "What was I to do, Jeff? Just let her self-destruct like that?"

"No, Mackie, you're too good a friend. You're just not the one I would have expected to pick Hilary up." Then Jeff remembered what Hilary had said about her new husband. He put the pieces together. "Mackie, you... you're..."

"To thine ownself be true, Jeff," Mackie grinned, leaving the Green Room to have lunch with his wife.

**Author's Note:**

> I blame this fanfic on Biz, really. She suggested the possibility and my brain ran with it all the way to Dayton and back. I've never tried to "solve" WENN cliffhangers so this is new fanfic territory for me.
> 
> John Barrymore made many radio appearances, especially on the Rudy Vallee show. In 1937, when Barrymore was in decline, NBC aired on a radio show called "Streamlined Shakespeare" with 45 minute productions of the Bard, including "Hamlet", Barrymore's most famous role from the 1920s. Despite his close association with Shakespeare, Barrymore actually only appeared in two stage productions, "Richard III" and "Hamlet" and the film versions of "Richard III" and "Romeo and Juliet". Barrymore died in 1942.
> 
> Mackie's closing line comes from Polonius' most famous speech in "Hamlet".


End file.
